The newest Refractory Tower went up on the adjoining land over the next month. Sama and Briggs had chosen territory that was open for development for just this reason, with poor soil for farming, lots of rock, and scrub forests, along with poor water access. It simply wasn’t desirable for living or farming, which meant perfect for their needs, especially now that they had access to some decently powerful Earth Mages.

The White Mana Zone expanded into another square mile of territory, buildings and factories soon to follow as product demand began to pick up, and a certain Sunbreasted Robin flew out to find Babe and invite the Big Blue Ox Companion of Paul Bunyan over to take a look at things.

Everyone turned out to see him arrive. The massively-built and scarred Ox was over sixty foot tall at the shoulder, and appeared as casually and placidly dangerous as Hell. He looked like he was plodding along, except he was covering about five times the distance he should have, and all the trees were flowing out of his way without moving at all. There was a certain feeling in the air that we’d better not be wasting his time, the air and ground humming with the restrained power of a half-Emperor Beast.

Everybody in the Coralost Compound turned out to meet him, lining up on the route to the new Refractory Tower, which would probably have been Babe’s target regardless.

The new Cracked Mana Chamber alone was over a hundred feet high, and was splayed out much wider than the other main Tower. The Tower was over twice as high in total, built of stone-wrapped steel with lots of Runes slithering over them and pulsing with energy.

Babe strolled right up to it, glancing out at the quietly respectful Humans all about while chewing the top of a birch he’d casually ripped off in passing, the sounds of the trunk and branches cracking and being crushed like stalks of grass between his teeth quite clear.

He paused before going inside, plainly considering the chance that this could be a trap of some kind.

Sunny hopped off Babe’s gleaming and polished horn, ivory that had once impaled the Wolverine Emperor, and swooped through the space between the Refractory’s four legs. Then both Lord Quake and Reynard came out from behind the tower’s legs and bowed respectfully to the great Blue Ox.

What they said apparently was enough to mollify the suspicions of the Blue Ox, who resumed his pace and proceeded forward into the Cracked Mana Chamber.

His huff of surprise blew a gust of wind out of the opposite side of the structure, and the Blue Ox looked up and around slowly in thoughtful silence. His hanging tail switched and swayed as he fully entered the Cracked Mana Space, and the massive scars on his right side began to glow and smoke, while breezes swirled and the whole structure began to vibrate around him.

“Elder Babe,” a deep voice called down, and the Ox’s gaze lifted to a Human standing on the beams that were just a few yards higher than his horns could normally reach. “Call the Earth Mana to you, tilt your head up, and drink.”

The Blue Ox looked at what looked like a large pipe above him. He could feel the continual inrush of Elements falling from it, Elemental nature separated from Mana, generating the White Mana Field as it did so.

With another huff, power swirled in the air. Bound to and knowing every inch of the land intimately, the Blue Ox’s power reached out and around for miles, and began to draw the Earth Mana to him.

It was a colossal amount of power, far more than any Human could channel and control without a great deal more time and effort. It arrived in a flood, the pull clearly felt by every mage within the area, the Earth Mages overpoweringly so.

However, it hit the White Mana Zone, and was instantly drawn into the Refractory Tower. Power flared in the tower like a great fluorescent light, and Typeless Mana gushed out of the Tower in a nearly-visible flow... and a crystalline golden stream sparkled and fell down the pipe into the Cracked Mana Chamber.

It was not a lot of power, but it was intense and deep, almost compressed, Elemental power. Indeed, weaker Magical Beasts would barely be able to process a few particles of it, and even a half-Emperor could feel the marvelous density of this Elemental Power, already compressed and dense and needing precious little additional work to fit into his own power.

He raised his head and opened his jaws, drinking in the quiet, sparkling flow of Earthpower with rather more eagerness than he’d displayed in anything for years.

---

“Perfect!” Briggs smiled. The Refractory’s normal Mana Cracking was more than enough for a Commander or lesser Beast, but a Ruler might have found it a little slow, let alone a half-Emperor. The Blue Ox had such a powerful Mana Draw that he could satisfy his own ability to process the residual Earth Elements left after the Cracking.

“If the Elder can also draw in his other Elements, he can partake of those as well.”

Great dark sapphire eyes rolled over at the young woman standing in mid-air there, widening ever-so-slightly at the Aura of Power around her.

Grunting, Babe carefully adjusted his stance, and began to pull in the Air Mana as well.

A hurricane Wind of Mana converged on them from all directions, not rustling a single leaf, but everyone could feel the storm of it in motion as it hit the White Mana Zone, gathered on the Refractory, and pale blue particles began to fall down the pipe in numbers as great as the golden.

“Everyone inside!” Briggs called out, Warlord’s Voice carrying with total command, and the lines of Typeless and True Powered outside turned and jogged quickly into the Cracked Mana Chamber, spreading out in a Formation all around the great Blue Ox before settling to the ground.

A single Note arose and grew with titanic speed, despite getting no louder. Magic sang and soared in response, an entire orchestra of magic coming to life in the Sublime Chord.

The Seven-Star Formation below ignited, and took off with a happy roar. It swirled around Babe, building into a torus of multiple magical energies, each Singing in a different note that united into something greater and far more powerful.

The Sublime Chord.

The Blue Ox’s eyes rolled back, and he lowed, long and impossibly deep, a basso reverb that seemed to carry all the undercurrents of the world, of space and time passing, mountains of eternity sliding past more ethereal than any mist, more absolute, enduring, and unstoppable than the greatest peaks of the world.

He was drinking in the densest Air and Earth Mana he had ever tasted, and yet there were mountains more of the other Elements dancing and Singing about him.

A Celestial Fox reached out, and the Humans below began to hum and Sing along, far from perfect, yet their imperfections still managed to add to the whole. An Earth Drake rumbled things born where earthfire burned, and a Sunbreasted Robin burst into a full-throated Song such as not been heard in Michigan for most of a century, a celebration of Light and Warmth and Joy joined to the transcendent Truth, Hope, and Valor incarnated into the Sublime Chord.

-----------

The Blue Ox didn’t go far when he finished up. He sort of swayed drunkenly on his massive legs, yet there was no chance of him hitting anyone as all the Humans and Beasts smoothly left the Chamber in all directions, making way for Babe to exit any way he wished.

He turned back the way he’d come in, and went staggering back out, his head clearly lolling somewhat.

He made it about a quarter-mile into the scrub forest before settling down on all fours, crushing a whole stand of young poplar as he did so. He put his head down and was soon fast asleep, new brush growing up around him as quiet windstorms swirled with every breath and exhalation.

Tox and Red led the mages over to watch over the resting Blue Ox, with Sunny taking up a proud perch on his horns. There weren’t very many of them, but the news that Babe seemed to have made friends with the owner of the Coralost Compound was no doubt going to be recruiting many more Michigan mages who idolized the Blue Ox!

----

-Hey, Lady Fae, got a question for you,- Red’s laconic /voice came through his Mark.

-Go ahead.- I was Energizing materials, he wasn’t interrupting anything. I couldn’t do more than a base cubic inch per Caster Level at a time before Infusing Widen into Noble, but when I had over two thousand Mana to play with now, well, that added up to a lot of stuff over time.

-I was looking over Babe’s scars, seeing if I could purify ‘em a bit with Light. They’re still kind of raw and ugly, you know?-

-The ones made by the Wolverine Emperor?- I /asked back.

-Yeah. There’s some absolutely ferocious Earth and I think Blood Magic lingering in them. My attempt to Purify them went absolutely nowhere.-

-Huh.- The Ox just likely bore the pain stoically, but feeling those scars for the last hundred years could not have been good, and possibly had even held back his evolution. He likely wouldn’t be able to advance until the power was gone, and likely they were tearing at his spirit as much as his flesh.

-Okay, looks like our favors for our Totem Beast aren’t done, not that we were gonna stop. Let me know when he wakes up, and have Sunny stick around. If I’m in Boston, ask him to wait around until I get back, and we’ll see about treating those scars.-

Now I just had to make up a few hundred pounds of Water Copper. Hydrocuprium didn’t have a lot of specialized uses, other than a generic heat conductor... but one of them was that it was one of the very best conductors of magical Force.

I had someone head out to get the highest gauge of power cable they could while I requisitioned some copper from storage and got to work.

Babe wasn’t a Good creature, per se, but he was our Totem Beast, and treating your allies right, instead of taking advantage of them, was all part of being Good. Michigan as a State wouldn’t even exist without him, so it was time to do something for him, instead of just taking him for granted.

---------

I had an interested crowd on hand when I showed up by Babe’s side, loops of thick cable and a lot of raw copper piled up on a Disk next to me. The Blue Ox recognized me immediately, of course, which was no surprise, as I’d been sitting on his back for six hours straight while Singing the Sublime Chord the day before, probably making quite the impression.

Just the +4 Caster Level pop would have gotten his attention, as it allowed him to feel the true power of the Emperor Class Beasts!

“Hey, there, Elder,” I waved to him as I glided up next to his eye. “Sunny should have told you that we’d like to treat those scars of yours.” He was laying partially on his side, the scars on full display. They were indeed still livid, looking like they’d barely healed, and indeed could break open and bleed at any time.

I wouldn’t have been surprised to find out that any time he got into a real fight, they opened up and started running again.

“The way I’m going to treat this is going to be rather innovative. It’s what all this cable is for. Rather than try to get rid of the vestigial Mana in the injuries, we’re going to make use of it. I think it will be quite valuable for you!” I smiled encouragingly at him, and knew I had his interest as he whuffed at me.

“Thanks. Let me examine the scars first. This won’t be quick, but after putting up with that rotter’s badges for all these decades, I don’t think you’re lacking patience.”

I zipped over to the scars, and found Sama walking up next to me on her Cloudstepping Sandals as I put my hands on the scars... and promptly snatched them back off. I turned my hands over, and whistled as they began to bleed.

“That is some nasty residual Mana,” Sama murmured, looking impressed as she eyed my hands.

“You do it.” I gestured with my elbow as Silver Magic hissed over the wound and eliminated the lingering no-heal effect of some damn potent Earth Mana.

Unafraid, Sama did just that, slapping her hands on the rather raw scar tissue and frowning.